The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 24

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE Thursday, October 28, 1993 Tampa Bay loses Super Bowl bid Jax Bucs? Team says it's unlikely 5 i With an expansion team doubtful to come, Jacksonville may look south for its NFL fix. realistic chance at landing the prestigious game. "When we did our presentation, everything went fine," task force chairman Joe Fincher said. "We talked about Tampa and St. Petersburg.

After we showed our video, we got a round of applause. I think they liked our presentation. But we didn't get it." Awarding Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 to New Orleans came as no surprise. Always a league favorite, New Orleans has been granted the game for the eighth time and first since 1990. San Diego was the other finalist for 1997.

From the beginning, Tampa See BAY AREA, Page 6 New Orleans gets the game in 1997 and San Diego in 1998, puzzling area officials. By JOE FRISARO Tribune Staff Writer CHICAGO The NFL owners applauded Tampa Bay's pitch to land the 1997 and 1998 Super Bowls Wednesday, then promptly selected New Orleans and San Diego. While the super snub was expected, members of the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Task Force left the meetings -disappointed and wondering if there will be another was a possibility. "If we didn't get an expansion team, I'd certainly be interested in talking to the Bucs about moving here. That's a given," TD Jax! general partner J.

Wayne Weaver told the Florida Times-Union. However, Gay Culverhouse, the Bucs' president and chairwoman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, emphatically denied Wednesday the team was thinking about leaving. "We don't intend to move, but I'm sure we will be approached by the franchises that don't get awarded teams," Culverhouse said Wednesday at the league meetings. While relocation appears to be See IF, Page I By JOE FRISARO Tribune Staff Writer CHICAGO A day after the NFL placed Jacksonville's expansion hopes on hold, speculation began regarding the city's chances of courting an existing team namely, the Bucs. Touchdown Jacksonville! Ltd.

officials said they will remain in the expansion hunt until the NFL picks a twin for the new Carolina Panthers but added pursuing the Bucs 44 We don't intend to move, but I'm sure we will be approached by the franchises that don't get awarded teams, i Gay Culverhouse Bucs president 'lis1 4 3 I I .44 fe I 1 K-- VA 1 STEPHEN M. DOWELLTribune photos Losses like the 1992 Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame gnaw at Florida coach Steve Spurrier. The Morning After Tom McEwen All dressed up and nobody to dance with CHICAGO It would be very easy to become angry, the people of Tampa Bay and its Super Bowl Task Force, with the quick dispatch of its praised bid for the 1997 or 1998 Super Bowl. Very easy. In the first place, the bid was encouraged, as it was in 1991 for two other Super Bowls, encouraged because of the well-produced 1984 and 1991 Super Bowls at Tampa Stadium.

Encouraged and re-encouraged by the National Football League when members of the Tampa Task Force wondered if there was a chance against New Orleans and San Diego, which had not had Super Bowls since Tampa's, and against moneybags, glittery Los Angeles, home of the Rose Bowl. Be easy because those encouragements created the task force Joe Fincher headed and Shirley Ryals and Leonard Levy vice-chaired and Jim Clark and Jim Wood of the TampaHillsborough Convention and Tourist Association managed efficiently. Be easy because the bid was a solid one, a competitive one, because the presentation here Wednesday ended grandly with the best video of. the four. Be easy to be angry because Tampa was eliminated on the first ballot for the 1997 game that great host city New Orleans got, and on the first ballot for the 1998 game San Diego just barely beat out Los Angeles to stage.

San Diego will do a good job. And both New Orleans and San Diego did wonderful jobs with their campaigns, with their team's owners, Tom Benson of the Saints and Alex Spanos of the Chargers, so effective in lobbying and calling in due bills. Spanos was overjoyed, overwhelmed with pride for his achievement, remembering well Tampa barely beat out his San Diego for the 1991 Silver Anniversary game produced in Academy Award style during the Gulf War. Easy to be angry when the explanation given is that Tampa has had one since New Orleans and San Diego, the winners. But that's what Super Bowl Director Jim Steeg said was the difference.

That's what Ralph Wilson of the Buffalo Bills said was the difference. The race is on for 2000 So it is easy today to be angry, especially with the notice that January 2000 is the next available bowl for which Tampa may bid and virtually every eligible city will be in that competition, including Los Angeles and Miami. Easy to be angry, big-time angry. But what does that get you? A couple of sleepless nights, headaches, heartaches, dismaying disappointment and nothing else. "True, but it does make you wonder why we were so encouraged to bid," said Buc President Gay Culverhouse.

"Why ask me to the prom if you are not going to dance with me?" she asked. "The task force of Joe Fincher did a great job. Mayor Sandy Freedman was strong in the presentation and we drew the only applause until the one after us Los Angeles got applause one of its presenters Started." President Culverhouse kept notes on the presentation and honestly, the financials were comparable, really. She agreed the decisions for New Orleans and San Diego were purely because Tampa had a game more recently and "that makes no sense," she said. "I am genuinely disappointed.

Rich McKay and I lobbied as hard as we could." Wouldn't change a thing In the balloting for the 1997 game, Tampa had the fewest votes in the first round and was eliminated. Los Angeles was not in that balloting. After three more votes when neither New Orleans nor San Diego received the 21 of 28 votes needed, it went to a simple majority and New Orleans won in a close, undisclosed vote. In the balloting for 1998 among San Diego, Tampa and Los Angeles, Tampa was eliminated on the first ballot with the fewest votes. Three votes later, neither San Diego nor Los Angeles received the needed 21 votes.

On a simple majority, San Diego won by what was believed to be 15-13. "We would change nothing," said Fincher. "I thank all who were involved. I am glad I was here because we tried to do something good for our community. We almost made it." "We gave it our best shot, but they gave it to the guys who hadn't had it since we had, I guess," Freedman said.

"It hurts." Again, it's easy to be angry about this. And I am. So what will it get me? The sleepless night ahead, regret at working hard at it, and heartaches. Now, about the arena for the Lightning and an NBA franchise at a Hillsborough County site. Yearning and burning Steve Spurrier's success has created a swagger, but his hatred for losing has molded him and the Florida Gators into winners.

sideline. Opponents have tried to pinpoint what makes Spurrier tick and his offense click, but the bottom line on this country boy from Tennessee, this loving and devoted family man, is quite simple. Spurrier burns and yearns for victory and is at his best when backed into a corner like a caged and enraged animal. Ask his players. Ask his friends.

Ask his family. Heck, ask his next opponent, the Georgia Bulldogs, what a focused Steve Spurrier is like. Each knows all too well. "We compete in nothing. Zero.

And that's the truth. I don't tell him how to coach and he doesn't The file By CHRIS HARRY Tribune Staff Writer GAINESVILLE he handshake. A customary gesture of good sportsmanship after the confrontation on the field. Coaches meet, offer hands, and go their separate ways. No big deal for most.

A painful ritual for Steve Spurrier. "Sometimes you even see coaches hug each other," Spurrier said. "Gosh, I can't do that." The very thought of confronting his adversary, face to face, moments after defeat, gnaws away at the University of Florida football coach. Worse yet, to paint on a smile and mumble "Good game!" after a loss just doesn't make sense. For in Spurrier's eyes, there is nothing "good" about a loss.

"My self-motivation is just hating despising to lose," he said. "I don't like to shake hands with the other coach after losing. To me, it's a little bit of an embarrassment. That coach has beaten you and in his mind he's saying, 'I'm tougher than Spurrier. I had my team better prepared than That's all the motivation I need." He is as furious a competitor as has ever walked a m.wm mmmfmmmmm, 1 i 1 tell me how to cook," said Jerri Spurrier, his wife of 27 years.

"I love all the games he plays and love to watch them, but I do not ever want to play with him. Not on a tennis court, not on a golf course, nowhere. I could never be good enough." "He thinks he's going to birdie every hole," said See SPURRIER'S, Page 9 Jets thwart Lightning comeback, 4-3 1 Baseball Dodgers' Piazza is a runaway selection for NL Rookie of the Year. Page 3 Pro Basketball Federal judge upholds Dudley's controversial seven-year contract with the Trail Blazers. Page 4 Pro Football QB Rubley gets the nod for Rams, snapping Everett's streak of 87 consecutive starts.

Page 7 "I mean, they weren't even good-effort goals. They didn't even have to work for them. They were Just lob shots from the point or off a bad angle that went in. That really hurts to lose a game like that." The strangest of the three "fluky" goals was one that Stu Barnes shot in off Chris Gratton's stick while Barnes skated backwards behind the Lightning net midway through the second period. But the most damaging was one that came off the stick of defenseman Teppo Nummlnen while the game was tied at 3-3 midway through the third.

Standing at the point, Nummlnen swiped at a loose puck as it rolled toward him. The result was a floating shot that confounded Lightning goalie Daren Puppa and gave See LIGHTNING, Page 4 By ROY CUMMINGS Tribune Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG It wasn't so much that the Tampa Bay Lightning lost on Wednesday night, but more the way they lost that left Coach Terry Crisp shaking his head. In all his years in hockey, Crisp said he'd never before seen three fluky goals go against his team in a single game. But in an outing in which the Lightning held the explosive Winnipeg Jets to just 23 shots their second lowest total this season fluky goals were the order of the day.

And the Jets used a trio of them to hand the Lightning a 4-3 defeat before a season-low ThunderDome crowd of 16,006. "I just can't believe the goals they got against us tonight," Crisp said. "I'd love to get two or three of those. Just once. 4iy i.

RON J. BERARDT ribun photo The Lightning's Gerard Gallant goes for the score against Bob Essensa as Nelson Emerson (19) helps on defense. in -i i fc-J- I.